Fifty Memories
by The Atomic Cafe
Summary: Fifty sentences about Mac and Stella for the 1sentence challenge.


**Fifty Memories**

**By Dimgwrthien**

_Disclaimer: I do not own CSI:NY or affiliates._

#01 - Ring

Stella knows how she is around men and how her eyes can't help but wander: first, they trail his body, his eyes, his hair, and then they notice the ring on Mac's ring finger.

#02 - Hero

Every time Stella enters Mac's office, she doesn't drop off the case file directly, but lets herself read his name on every medal and certificate in there, if only because it comforts her to know she's friends with a hero.

#03 - Memory

When they first met, Mac thought Stella had lost her memory because she never answered his question of "What did you do as a kid?"

#04 - Box

As Mac carried out the last boxes of his memories of Claire to bring to the dump, Stella stopped him in the hallway, then took one for him.

#05 - Run

Their runs took place early in the morning on the days that both managed to wake before the sun, and Mac always noticed the flowers on those days.

#06 - Hurricane

Hurricanes usually didn't carry past the coast, but when they did, Mac learned that Stella was afraid of the thunder, and those were the nights he knew he had to keep free just for her.

#07 - Wings

Mac pities the pigeons, Stella notices as he fought to save the bird from the pigeon wire at the crime scene, despite the contamination he knew could come from it.

#08 - Cold

On those nights when Stella hides in Mac's bed from the storms, he pulls out the blankets from the closet if only to comfort himself because he knows he'll feel guilty if he touches her.

#09 - Red

Both drank their wine red only when they were in a good mood, and the sheets were stained with that dark crimson by morning.

#10 - Drink

Mac woke first, seeing the red stains over the stack of blankets, and found the bottle to take a long swig because he _didn't_ feel guilty and it shamed him.

#11 - Midnight

Stella found Mac in his office as the clock tolled out twelve times, and she resisted the urge to walk in and drag him out by the collar to go to bed.

#12 - Temptation

When Mac appears on her door the day after the bombing, his hands shaking and his eyes dead, she wants to take him into her arms and slowly talk everything out with him, but she resists temptation with a simple, "Want a glass of water?"

#13 - View

Mac hates the view from the lab because of what used to be there, and Stella loves it because of what it created.

#14 - Music

Stella sneaks into the club because she knows she shouldn't be there and waits patiently to hear Mac's bass.

#15 - Silk

Mac's never liked the feel of silk, but maybe he'll change his mind as he kisses Stella slow, his hand touching her silk-covered thigh.

#16 - Cover

Mac feels bad when he shoves Stella behind a table as the suspect shoots because he knows she broke her nose on the fall he caused.

#17 - Promise

When he walks out of the shooting with a bloody mouth and a torn shoulder, Stella makes him promise not to be stupid anymore, and Mac answers that he can't help it.

#18 - Dream

Claire told Stella about her dream before the Towers fell and made her promise to look after Mac if anything happened, and Mac still can't get over the fact that neither told him.

#19 - Candle

Neither can look at a candle anymore without remembering the night, years ago, of a blackout and board games and the hot steam of sex filling the room and the apartment with their harsh breathing.

#20 - Talent

"That takes talent," Stella says as Mac manages to untie the dead victim from his prison, and she can't help but comically wonder if he's that good at unhooking bras.

#21 - Silence

Stella hates the silence whenever they touch, how Mac freezes and stops talking, but she assumes it's his own method of finding peace.

#22 - Journey

Standing over the grave, worthless flowers in hand, you consider how long the journey was and how abrupt the ending was.

#23 - Fire

Stella found herself afraid of an angry Mac because she thought the fire behind his eyes would burn her.

#24 - Strength

Stella hated thinking about the past, and contented herself with the future: their kids would be beautiful, sharp, and strong.

#25 - Mask

After-hours Stella was too different, and Mac wanted to tug at her face and see the mask fall every time she wore a jacket and spoke in scientific terms.

#26 - Ice

Mac always likes his ice crushed while Stella likes hers whole; she loves the look on his face when she slowly guides the ice cube through his mouth to taunt him.

#27 - Fall

"Did you fall from heaven?" was a pick-up line Mac noticed never worked on Stella, no matter who tried it (whether it was Danny or Flack or the man buying a coffee), and he sees why: angel doesn't even come close.

#28 - Forgotten

He feels pathetic when Stella doesn't even comment on his birthday, and decides to head down to the beach even as Stella knocks on his apartment door to give him his gift.

#29 - Dance

Mac runs his hand down Stella's spine as she falls into a dip, arching her ribs and breasts to him, silent in the sound of the piano behind them, alien to their own little world.

#30 - Body

She likes the feel of Mac's skin, and she never hides herself behind half-assed excuses when she brushes up against him in the lab just to touch his hand or arm.

#31 - Sacred

Mac lectured everyone at some point, the Infamous Mac Lecture, about the lab and the city and the country of everything that was sacred to him; Stella still remembers when he told her, and she wished she had been on that list.

#32 - Farewells

On the plane, Mac wonders why he didn't wait a few more minutes at the airport, why he gave up so easily, but he tries to take his mind off it by staring at the city leaving from under the plane.

#33 - World

Stella speaks Greek, and Mac can't help but imagine her there, imagine her around the world, a chameleon of cultures, fitting in everywhere he imagines her.

#34 - Formal

He starts to think, as he watches the way Stella moves and the black fabric swings around her legs, that he only invited her to see how beautiful she could be.

#35 - Fever

Stella's eyes looked too red and her skin too pale; Mac tried his best to make her comfortable, but they found themselves equally sick after a day, huddled together under a blanket, watching reruns of _The X-Files_.

#36 - Laugh

Mac fishes around for bad jokes and puns to hear Stella laugh that crystalline laugh, clear and joyous; when she doesn't laugh, he finds himself unable to concentrate that day.

#37 - Lies

"We're not," she said quickly, almost threateningly, when Mac walks in on her and Frankie in her office.

#38 - Forever

He knows he can't promise forever, but he tries like hell, beginning with that kiss.

#39 - Overwhelmed

When she peeks him kissing _her_ in the lab, Stella feels her throat rip, her brain disconnect from her body, her hands shake, and tries to let the feeling overcome her.

#40 - Whisper

Stella likes the way Mac whispers - he enunciates his words calmly as though he's speaking as loud as usual, but the words seem to have a deeper meaning like they're a secret.

#41 - Wait

"Wait," Mac said lamely, and he realized he couldn't count how many times he had asked her to.

#42 - Talk

Stella talks loudly to Mac over coffee, speaks long words at work, remains silent in the car, chats over dinner, and whispers to him in bed that night.

#43 - Search

Mac remembers entering Stella's apartment, only seeing the blood along the carpet alongside her body, and how his hands searched every part of her for what he feared would be the last time.

#44 - Hope

When Pandora opened her box, hope came after the despair; Mac made sure there was nothing hideous in what he gave Stella.

#45 - Eclipse

"Next one will be in 2007," Stella whispers as she points at the fading sun, her joy apparent, and Mac mentally sets the date away in his mind.

#46 - Gravity

From the time they first met, Stella couldn't help but notice that each time she saw Mac, her heart fell deep into her, protected itself better, and pounded faster _and faster and faster_.

#47 - Highway

Mac takes a detour on their way back from court (_guilty, guilty, guilty Mac_, he thinks), just so that he can kiss her all over her lips and tell her, "It's alright," because she hasn't stopped crying from the unfairness of it all.

#48 - Unknown

When he asks her, just four words, she becomes silent as though she's afraid of what will be next if she agrees.

#49 - Lock

Mac finds himself locked out one night and can't understand why Stella hated him; he almost cries in relief when he realized Stella had forgotten her keys as well and left seven messages to tell him to meet her at the hotel.

#50 - Breathe

At the wedding, Mac whispers into Stella's ear to breathe, to be calm, though she never sees to take his advice as her cheeks flush and she walks down the aisle with no father at her arm.


End file.
